Dialogue in teamwork

Though communication is a vital ingredient of Cooperative Problem Solving (CPS) in multiagent systems (MAS), an in-depth analysis of different types of communication has been missing in the MAS literature. This paper presents an investigation into the role that five specific types of dialogue play during consecutive stages of CPS in BDI systems, i.e., potential recognition , team formation , plan formation , and team action . The presented approach is based, on the one hand, on our theory of social and collective motivational attitudes in BDI systems, with collective commitment as a central concept. On the other hand, the typology of dialogues given by Krabbe and Walton is exploited. The relevant dialogue types are: persuasion , negotiation , inquiry , deliberation , and information seeking . The whole process of dialogue among computational agents needs to be transparent. Thus, at each level of CPS the agents’ internal attitudes need to be established, and then updated and revised when needed.